Time to relax!

After a long hard working week we were ready to relax and play this weekend!  We drove to Jinja, about 1 ½ hours away, on Saturday where the source of the Nile River is.  It’s the longest river in the world and the only one that flows north.  James bungee jumped head first 140 feet, into the Nile, which drew applause from a group of tourists in a boat, and from everyone on the property…except Kirabo.  He just stared at James and wouldn’t move until he saw him safely back next to his side.  My newly found fear of heights kept me firmly on the ground.  Right before he jumped, we saw a huge green animal swimming right towards where James was going to land and I thought it was a crocodile!  It turned out to be a huge monitor lizard just swimming in the river! 

We went on a bird watching boat trip to the source of the Nile which you have to access by boat.  While neither of us are really that into birds, it’s remarkable how beautiful they all are.  Even their dragonflies were unique and breathtaking in their own right.  When we got to the source of the Nile, they had “American Pop” blaring out from speakers.  We just started laughing.  Seriously?  It’s this beautiful, peaceful scene and then you’ve got Maroon 5 blaring out just ruining the nature!  Kirabo did not like the loud music and I tried to cover his ears.

the view from our boat, it was so quintessential Ugandan, I had to capture it.  It's one of
my favorite pictures from our trip

us in front of the actual source of the Nile.  The Nile begins where the outlet to Lake Victoria meets the spring water and flows northward. The bubbles coming up behind us are from the springs underneath.

We saw a beautiful waterfall along the river and hiked through the mud to get to a particularly close and pretty view.  I’ve been nauseous all week since I got here and just assumed it was nerves and anxiety.  But now that court is over and it’s even worse today, I’m starting to think it’s the Malaria medication.  It can have that side effect.  So, I’m going to take it tonight and see if that makes a difference.  Before I left, I had this vision of dozens of mosquitos flying around me constantly in the evenings and I’ve seen maybe one my entire time here.  I brought dozens of bottles of insect repellent but haven’t met one person that even wears it!  Even Muzungus (white people.)

Today we woke up and got ready for church.  We put underwear on him for the first time today instead of the pull ups we’d been putting on him.  He never wore any underwear at the orphanage, only shorts.  He thought they were his shorts and wouldn’t let us put any pants on him.  He gets really stubborn and pouty and jerked away from us.  When I tried to still get them on he started on his baby cry and collapsed into a heap.  James tried to force him to do it which was the wrong approach.  He ran to me for a hug and within 2 seconds of a hug, he was totally fine.  If he so much as bumps into something he falls apart.  James said he needs to toughen up but my take is he’s had to be tough his whole life, I don’t mind catching him up on the comforting!  Sooner or later we’ll work on “brushing it off” but that time is not now.

So after a 30 minute drama of getting him dressed, we left for church.  It is a beautiful building only about 5 minutes from where we are staying.  They have a key board but no one to play it.  Their pews are amazingly comfortable and the people so kind.  For music the chorister, a returned missionary, sings the first line in the key we are to sing it, and then we begin and sing accopella.  It was beautiful.  They were the most beautiful voices I’ve heard and they were singing perfectly in 3 part harmony.  The earnestness in which they sang and beautiful tone to their voices brought tears to my eyes as I listened to them worship through song.  The spirit just filled the room.  I couldn’t wait until Kate and Charlie could witness this.  It was fast and testimony meeting which means people could get up and speak voluntarily.  The person conducting was hilarious because he gave everyone a 2 minute time limit at the microphone and if you dared to go longer he didn’t hesitate to stand up and publicly ask you to sit down right there!  It was like watching the acceptance speeches at the Academy Awards get played off the stage!  They must have a problem with long talkers!  They certainly had no problems with dead time as there was a constant line of people waiting to share with the group how much they loved their Heavenly Father.  They kept much more to the point than I hear people do in our own testimony meetings!    Kirabo did great during this meeting.

I walked him to nursery for the second hour and for some reason he wouldn’t even walk down the hall.  I’m not sure what set him off but he pulled away and ran away.  At that point he wouldn’t even hold my hand.  I’m not sure if it was the tile floors that looked like the orphanage or all the African women who were paying attention to him but he had shut down again.  When I suggested we go back to daddy, he was very eager to do that.  He sat with us during gospel doctrine and it was our privilege to hear a lesson given by a returned missionary who was very charismatic and dynamic.  He kept mentioning in a cute way how he promises to get married soon and that he “is working on it!”  Every time he would call on someone to comment he would give them a time limit.  Based on who they were he would say, “Yes, you have only 30 seconds.”  Or “1 minute only please brother.”  They seem to be very fixed on time limits but no one minded as they were all so involved and engaged.  Once there was only one hand up and the teacher said, “Oh please, anyone but brother xxx.”  It was really funny how blunt they were.

The third hour both James and I tried again and walked Kirabo to nursery.  This time we got through the door and there was a 1 year old and 2 adorable 4 year olds.  The two women in there were so sweet, Jennifer and Sister Rose.  We talked for a long time about the adoption and they were so supportive of what we were doing.  I had several people come up to me and thank me for what we are doing.  The general feel here is gratitude to us for helping them take care of their children.  Pretty soon Kirabo started playing with the toys and eating a biscuit.  The women were so sweet to him and we realized Sister Rose was the mother of Ivan who taught Gospel Doctrine!  She had 6 children including 1 set of twins.  They give you a special name if you are the mother of twins, which is why I had a hard time understanding her name.  She introduced herself as Sister Rose Nalongo.  (Sister Rose, mother of twins).  We said that meant that James’ mother is Margaret Nalongo!  They all just loved Kirabo and were so impressed with how well he is doing.

While we were waiting for our ride to pick us up, I went to the chapel and played on the keyboard.  Sister Rose walked up to talk to me and I told her my ten year old plays hymns and could play some prelude music when he comes if they would like.  She said, “Oh well I’ll have to let my husband know, he’s the bishop.”  I started to laugh, Sister Rose was mother to 6 including Ivan the Sunday school teacher and wife of the bishop and wonderful nursery worker!  It looks like Charlie will have a temporary calling when he comes and play his hymns while people walk in to the chapel.

We came home, had lunch and put all of us down for a nap.  We were so exhausted!  When we woke up, we couldn’t go outside because of that cat and Kirabo’s paralyzing fear of him, so we went up to the terrace where they were playing American pop music and danced.  Kirabo loved it!  He jumped around and danced and danced.  He is very musical.  I learned two songs they sang to him at the orphanage and we sing them a lot.  He loves to sing along with me.  Then, we played soccer which is his absolute favorite thing to do!  He picked up patty cake very quickly and loves to play peekaboo which he also learned.  One time he actually said peekaboo which was so fun to hear.  He also said bye bye for the first time today while waving goodbye to the couple missionaries at church.

It’s been a nice relaxing day and a welcome change from the long days of last week.

His favorite trick, he laughs at himself when he does it

"mupira" or ball, he loves to play 'football'!

wrestling with daddy